A 14-year-old boy was taken into custody Tuesday night and will likely faces arson charges on Wednesday morning in connection with the fire that gutted the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol synagogue on Norfolk Street earlier this week, The Lo-Down reported.
Witnesses told police they had seen three young people near the gothic edifice, and a review of security camera tape showed the teenage suspects fleeing the scene, according to The Lo-Down.
Beth Hamedrash Hagodol, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue for more than 120 years, located at 60–64 Norfolk Street between Grand and Broome Streets in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, was destroyed Sunday evening. Rabbi Mendel Greenbaum told The Lo-Down that kids had been going in an out of the condemned building for weeks.
The young suspect was brought into the police 7th Precinct Tuesday night in the midst of the monthly meeting between local residents and Police Commissioner James O’Neill. The boy was taken upstairs for questioning.